Clang & Clatter

It’s Friday. Time to drop a Fiver over at Popdose.

Rush - “Limelight” (Rush in Rio, 2003)
One of my favorite Rush songs from a great live set. I absolutely love Alex Lifeson’s solo on this and the energy of the crowd throughout.

Leaving Araby - “Smile On Sweetheart” (Slightly South of Scene, 2006)
This track comes from the Athens, GA outfit’s debut EP that for the longest time was only available directly from the band (at least that’s how I got my copy). It’s a great piece of work that is hard to describe—they call their sound “a well-tempered blender containing gooey musical goodness!”—and, despite needing a bit more polish in places, showed great promise for where the band could have gone. It however exchanged a rawer indie approach for a shinier, more sparkly pop aesthetic on its next EP (not a bad thing, by the way). As far as I can tell, Leaving Araby has yet to put out a full-length album, choosing to release a third EP in 2010 that sports yet another change in direction.

Silage - “Original” (Vegas Car Chasers, 1998)
Late-90s genre-bending rap rock that sounds like it was influenced by everything from Jesus Jones to EMF. Ironically one of the lyrical themes is “It’s alright to write a song that sounds like everyone else’s song.” Decent enough, but not something I would go out of my way to listen to these days.

Geddy Lee - “The Present Tense” (My Favorite Headache, 2000)
I never saw much press when this solo effort from the Rush frontman was first released, but I have always thought this was a great album. Featuring the expected top-quality bass and vocal work from Geddy along with another extraordinary drummer (does Ged work with anything other?!) in Matt Cameron, it is sonically very similar to his main gig. Worth checking out for any Rush fan and, in my opinion, much better than Lifeson’s Victor released four years earlier. And I think early Happy Birthday wishes to Mr. Weinrib are in order!

Nine Inch Nails - “Echoplex” (The Slip, 2008)
I don’t know why, but for some reason I always have a hard time getting into Reznor’s work, especially that which doesn’t have the aggression of and isn’t very much like “Head Like a Hole” or “The Hand That Feeds.” This is one that goes into the “I need to listen a few more times to decide if I really like it” bucket.